Indians contribution to Mathematics :-

Indians contribution to Mathematics :-

Zero –The Most Powerful Tool:

India invented the Zero, without which there would be no binary system. No computers! Counting would be clumsy andcumbersome! The earliest recorded date, an inscription of Zero on Sankheda Copper Plate was found in Gujarat, India (585-586 CE). In Brahma-Phuta-Siddhanta of Brahmagupta (7th century CE), the Zero is lucidly explained and was rendered into Arabic books around 770 CE. From these it was carried to Europe in the 8th century. However, the concept of Zero is referred to as Shunya in the early Sanskrit texts of the 4th century BCE and clearly explained in Pingala’s Sutra of the 2nd century.

In a queer way the concept of 'Zero' or Shunya is derived from the concept of a void. The concept of void existed in Hindu Philosophyhence the derivation of a symbolfor it. The concept of Shunyata, influenced South-east asian culture through the Buddhist concept of Nirvana'attaining salvation by merging into the void of eternity'(Ornate Entrance of a Buddhist temple in Laos)

Geometry:

Invention of Geometry:

The word Geometry seems to have emerged from the Indian word ‘Gyaamiti’ which means measuring the Earth (land). And the word Trigonometry is similar to ‘Trikonamiti’ meaning measuring triangular forms. Euclid is credited with the invention of Geometry in 300 BCE while the concept of Geometry in India emerged in 1000 BCE, from the practice of making fire altars in square and rectangular shapes. The treatise of Surya Siddhanta (4th century CE) describes amazing details of Trigonometry, which were introduced to Europe 1200 years later in the 16th century by Briggs.

The Value of PI in India:

The ratio of the circumference and the diameter of a circle are known as Pi, which gives its value as 3,1428571. The old Sanskrit text Baudhayana Shulba Sutra of the 6th century BCE mentions this ratio as approximately equal to 3. Aryabhatta in 499, CE worked the value of Pi to the fourth decimal place as 3.1416. Centuries later, in 825 CE Arab mathematician Mohammed Ibna Musa says that "This value has been given by the Hindus (Indians)".

Pythagorean Theorem or Baudhayana Theorem?

The so-called Pythagoras Theorem – the square of the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle equals the sum of the square of the two sides – was worked out earlier in India by Baudhayana in Baudhayana Sulba Sutra. He describes: "The area produced by the diagonal of a rectangle is equal to the sum of the area produced by it on two sides."

[Note: Greek writers attributed the theorem of Euclid to Pythagoras]

The Decimal:

100BCE the Decimal system flourished in India!

"It was India that gave us the ingenious method of expressing all numbers by means of ten symbols (Decimal System)….a profound and important idea which escaped the genius of Archimedes and Apollonius, two of the greatest men produced by antiquity."

-La Place:

Raising 10 to the Power of 53

The highest prefix used for raising 10 to a power in today’s maths is ‘D’ for 10 to a power of 30 (from Greek Deca). While, as early as 100 BCE Indian Mathematicians had exact names for figures upto 10 to the power of 53.

ekam =1dashakam =10shatam =100 (10 to the power of 10)sahasram =1000 (10 power of 3)dashasahasram =10000 (10 power of 4)lakshaha =100000 (10 power of 5)dashalakshaha =1000000 (10 power of 6)kotihi =10000000 (10 power of 7)ayutam =1000000000 (10 power of 9)niyutam = (10 power of 11)kankaram = (10 power of 13)vivaram = (10 power of 15)paraardhaha = (10 power of 17)nivahaaha = (10 power of 19)utsangaha = (10 power of 21)bahulam = (10 power of 23)naagbaalaha = (10 power of 25)titilambam = (10 power of 27)vyavasthaana 

pragnaptihi = (10 power of 29)hetuheelam = (10 power of 31)karahuhu = (10 power of 33)hetvindreeyam = (10 power of 35)samaapta lambhaha = (10 power of 37)gananaagatihi) = (10 power of 39)niravadyam = (10 power of 41)mudraabaalam = (10 power of 43)sarvabaalam = (10 power of 45)vishamagnagatihi = (10 power of 47)sarvagnaha = (10 power of 49)vibhutangamaa = (10 power of 51)tallaakshanam = (10 power of 53)

(In Anuyogdwaar Sutra written in 100 BCE one numeral is raised as high as 10 to the power of 140).